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A short history of computers

Whether you
know it or not you depend on computers for almost every thing you do in modern
day life. From the second you get up in the morning to the second you go to
sleep computer are tied into what you do and use in some way. It is tied in to
you life in the most obvious and obscure ways. Take for example you wake up in
the morning usually to a digital alarm clock. You start you car it uses
computers the second you turn the key (General Motors is the largest buyers of
computer components in the world). You pick up the phone it uses computers. No
mater how hard you try you can get away from them you can't. It is inevitable.

Many people
think of computers as a new invention, and in reality it is very old. It is
about 2000 years old .1 The first computer was the abacus. This invention was
constructed of wood, two wires, and beads. It was a wooden rack with the two
wires strung across it horizontally and the beads were strung across the
wires. This was used for normal arithmetic uses. These type of computers are
considered analog computers. Another analog computer was the circular slide
rule. This was invented in 1621 by William Oughtred who was an English
mathematician. This slid ruler was a mechanical device made of two rules, one
sliding inside the other, and marked with many number scales. This slide ruler
could do such calculations as division, multiplication, roots, and logarithms.

Soon after
came some more advanced computers. In 1642 came Blaise Pascal's computer, the
Pascaline. It was considered to be the first automatic calculator. It
consisted of gears and interlocking cogs. It was so that you entered the
numbers with dials. It was originally made for his father, a tax collector.2
Then he went on to build 50 more of these Pascaline's, but clerks would not
uses them.3 They did this in fear that they would loose their jobs.4

Soon after
there were many similar inventions. There was the Leibniz wheel that was
invented by Gottfried Leibniz. It got its name because of the way it was designed
with a cylinder with stepped teeth. 5 This did the same functions of the other
computers of its time.

Computers,
such as the Leibniz wheel and the Pascaline, were not used widely until the
invention made by Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A Charles Xavier Thomas).6 It was the
first successful mechanical calculator that could do all the normal arithmetic
functions. This type of calculator was improved by many other inventors so it
could do a number of many other things by 1890. The improvements were they could
collect partial results, a memory function (could store information), and
output information to a printer. These improvement were made for commercial
uses mainly, and also required manual installation.

Around 1812
in Cambridge, England, new advancements in computers was made by Charles
Babbage. His idea was that long calculations could be done in a series of steps
the were repeated over many times.7 Ten years later in 1822 he had a working
model and in 1823 he had fabrication of his invention. He had called his
invention the Difference Engine.

In 1833 he
had stopped working on his Difference Engine because he had another idea. It
was to Build a Analytical Engine. This would have been a the first digital
computer that would be full program controlled. His invention was to do all the
general- purposes of modern computers. This computer was to use punch cards for
storage, steam power, and operated by one person.8 This computer was never
finished for many reasons. Some of the reasons were not having precision
mechanics and could solve problems not needed to be solved at that time.9
After Babbage's computer people lost interest in this type of inventions.10
Eventually inventions afterwards would cause a demand for calculations
capability that computers like Babbage's would capable of doing.

In 1890 an
new era of business computing had evolved. This was a development in punch card
use to make a step towards automated computing, which was first used in 1890 by
Herman Holler. Because of this human error was reduced dramatically.11 Punch
Cards could hold 80 charters per card and the machines could process about 50
-220 cards a minuet. This was a means of easily accessible me memory of
unlimited size.12 In 1896 Hollerith had founded his company Tabulating Machine
Company, but later in 1924 after several mergers and take-overs International
Business Machines (IBM) was formed.

An
invention during this time ,1906, would influence the way that computers were
built in the future, it is the first vacuum, and a paper was wrote by Alan
Turingthat described a hypothetical digital computer.13

In 1939
there was the first true digital computer. It was called the ABC, and was
designed by Dr. John Astanasoff.

In 1942
John O. Eckert, John W. Mauchly, and associates had decided to build a high
speed computer. The computer they were to build would become to be known as the
ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integration And Calculator). The reason for
building this was there was a demand for high computer capacity at the beginning
of World War two.

The ENIAC
after being built would take up 1,800 square feet of floor space.14 It would
consist of 18,000 vacuum tubes, and would take up 180,000 watts of power.15
The ENIAC was rated to be 1000 times faster than any other previous computer.
The ENIAC was accepted as the first successful high speed computer, and was
used from 1946 to 1955.16

Around the
same time there was a new computer built was more popular. It was more popular
because it not only had the ability to do calculations but it could also could
do the dissension make power of the human brain. When it was finished in 1950
it became the fastest computer in the world.17 It was built by the National
Bureau of standards on the campus of UCLA. It was names the National Bureau of
Standards Western Automatic Computer or the SWAC. It could be said that the
SWAC set the standards for computers for later up to present times.18 It was
because the had all the same primary units. It had a storage device, a internal
clock, an input output device, and arithmetic logic unit that consisting of a
control and arithmetic unit.

These computers
were considered first generation computers (1942 - 1958).

In 1948 John
Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Schockley of Bell labs file for the firs patent
on the transistor.19 This invention would foundation for second generation
computers (1958 - 1964).

Computers of the
second generation were smaller(about the size of a piano now) and much more
quicker because of the new inventions of its time. Computers used the much
smaller transistor over the bulky vacuum tubes. Another invention which
influenced second generation computers and every generation after it was the
discovery of magnetic core memory. Now magnetic tapes and disks were used to
store programs instead of being stored in the computer. This way the computer
could be used for many operations without totally being reprogrammed or rewired
to do another task. All you had to do was pop in another disk.

The third
generation(1964 - 1970) was when computers were commercialized then ever
before. This was because they were getting smaller and more dependable.20 Also
the cost went down and power requirements were less.21 This was probably
because of the invention of the silicon semiconductor. These computers were
used in mainly medical places and libraries for keep track of records and
various other reasons. These computer of the third generation were the first
micro computers.

The generation of
computers we are in now is the forth generation it started in 1970. The forth
generation really started with an idea by Ted Hoff, an employ of Intel, that
all the processing units of a computer could be placed on one single chip. This
Idea that he had was not bought by many people.22 I believe that with out this
idea upgradeable computers would never have been designed. Today, every thing
has a microprocessor built into it.23

The
microcomputer was changed forever in 1976 when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had
sold a Volkswagen and a calculator for $1300 to build the first Apple.24 The
work the did was in their garage. They Had founded their company 1983, and had
successfully mad the fortune 500 list.25

Two years
before Apple was founded IBM had announced the release of the IBM PC. Over the
next 18 months the IBM would become an industry standard.26

From the
1980 on there was a was a large demand for microcomputers Suck as the IBM PC
and Apple not only in industry but in the homes of many people. Many other
computers appeared during the 80's. Some were the Commodore, Tandy, Atari, and
game systems such as the nintendo and many others. There was aslo a large
demand for computer games for the home PC. Because of these many demands many
companies were getting very competitive. They were pushing for the faster better
computer. Buy the late 80's because of this demand microprocessors could handle
32 bits of data at a time pushing over 4 million instructions processed a
second.27

It seem as
if over time computers have evolved in to totally different machines but if you
put it in to perspective they are also much alike. But on the other hand With
almost every business and many families today are in demand of better and newer
computers it seems that if you buy a new computer today industry had made it
obsolete before you it. This is probably because the better you make a
computer and quicker it can do calculations the quicker it can help you in
designing an new computer that is even faster. It is a domino effect that was
started back 2000 years ago and will probably never end. Who knows what's in
store for the future or you could say the fifth generation of computers.

1. Meyers,
Jeremy. A Short History of the Computer.Compatible,
http://www.lightning.net/~softlord/comp.html, IBM Compatible, Internet,sotflord@lightning.net
pg. 1

2. Meyers,
Jeremy. A Short History of the Computer.http://www.lightning.net/~softlord/comp.html,
IBM Compatible, Internet,sotflord@lightning.net pg.

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